Patron of Culinary Medicine UK

Lord Bilimoria is the Founding Chairman of the UK India Business Council, a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London, a former Chancellor of Thames Valley University (now the University of West London); he was the youngest University Chancellor in the UK when appointed. Karan was a former Senior Non-Executive Director of the Booker Group now TESCO PLC (2007-2016); he is one of the first two visiting entrepreneurs at the University of Cambridge; he is a founding member of the Prime Minister of India’s Global Advisory Council. In 2006, Karan Bilimoria was appointed the Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea, making him the first ever Zoroastrian Parsi to sit in the House of Lords.  In 2008 he was awarded the Pravasi Bharti Samman by the President of India. He is an Honorary Fellow of Sidney Sussex College Cambridge and was Chair of the Advisory Board of the Judge Business School, Cambridge University from 2015-2020 and subsequently appointed as an Honorary Ambassador.  He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Ernst & Young and graduated in law from the University of Cambridge. He is also an alumnus through executive education of the Cranfield School of Management, the London Business School and the Harvard Business School. In July 2014, he was installed as the seventh Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, making him the first Indian-born Chancellor of a Russell Group University in Great Britain, and he is the President of the UK Council for International Students Affairs (UKCISA). Since 2017 Lord Bilimoria has been a Bynum Tudor Fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford. Lord Bilimoria is an Honorary Group Captain in 601 Squadron Royal Air Force. In June 2020, he was appointed President of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). In September 2020, he was appointed as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Oxford based at the Centre for Corporate Reputation. Karan has been awarded Honorary Doctorates from University of East Anglia, University of Birmingham, Brunel University, Cranfield University, University of Exeter, Heriot-Watt University, London Metropolitan University, Staffordshire University, York St John University, University of West London (previously Thames Valley University), and University of Westminster.

Founding Director

Dr Rupy Aujla is the NHS GP who started www.thedoctorskitchen.com A project to inspire patients about the beauty of food and the medicinal effects of eating well.

Not only does he create delicious recipes on his website and social media channels including Instagram, Facebook and YouTube – but Dr Aujla also talks about the amazing clinical research behind the ingredients he uses. He also has a best-selling cookbook – ‘The Doctor’s Kitchen’ – published by Harper Collins.

In his role as clinical adviser to the Royal College of GP’s and more recently being accepted as a fellow on the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme – Dr Aujla has big aspirations to bring the concept of ‘Culinary Medicine’ to the profession globally.

He is also the founder of ‘Culinary Medicine’ – a non-profit organisation which aims to teach doctors and medical students the foundations of nutrition as well as teaching them how to cook.

MBBS BSc (Hons) DFSRH DRCOG MRCGP PGCert (Merit) FRSPH | Chief Executive Officer

BSc (Hons) PGCE PGDip RD PhD Candidate | CMS Nutrition Lead And Director

Elaine is an experienced nutrition educator, who leads on the development of CMUK nutrition modules.

She is a PhD researcher and writer with an interest in improving access to healthy food for people facing food and nutrition insecurity. Also in widening nutrition education and collaboration across healthcare, culinary and public facing professions to advocate for better access to healthy affordable food for all. You can access her academic publications here and a book written for culinary professionals here.

Elaine is one of the authors of the Undergraduate Curriculum in Nutrition for Medical Doctors. She has developed a successful nutrition education programme  within Brighton and Sussex Medical School where she co-founded the Education and Research in Medical Nutrition Network (ERimNN). She also has a role within the NNEdPro Global Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health and the UK Nutrition Implementation Coalition 

With a career spanning over 20 years, as a Registered Dietitian and postgraduate qualifications in clinical education, diabetes, research, critical appraisal, behaviour change and communication, Elaine strives for both excellence and innovation.

MBBS BSc (Hons) AIMC | Treasurer and Director

Dr Abhinav Bhansali graduated from Imperial College school of medicine where he also secured a first class honours in healthcare management. He went on to work for Candesic, a boutique healthcare consulting firm, to further develop his project management skills. In 2016 he helped develop plans for the first of its kind, state of the art wellness center. Currently, he works as a clinical fellow at St Georges hospital and has previously also worked as a regional clinical supervisor to Cambridge medical undergraduates. Dr Bhansali strongly believes that our current attitude towards health needs to change. He believes that driving forward innovations like culinary medicine will help shape the change in population lifestyle needed to curb the burden of multi-morbidity.

Culinary Lead

Vince is a culinary lecturer at UK’s number one Hospitality School, Westminster Kingsway College (WKC). With over 25 years of experience within the hospitality industry and is an executive committee member of Master Chef’s of Great Britain.

He has pioneered several education initiatives at WKC including “Healthy plate, healthy planet”, a course co-developed with Nestle, and a bespoke degree in “Culinary Health and Nutrition”.

As our culinary lead he is extremely passionate about making healthy food accessible. He is currently undertaking research in collaboration with Brighton University in the Nutrient / biologically active constituents of micro greens.

MNutr (Hons) RD | CMUK Social Media and Communications Officer

Allie is a Registered Dietitian who graduated in 2021 from the University of Nottingham with an integrated masters in Nutrition and Dietetics. She currently works full time in the NHS as a Nutrition Support Dietitian, working within Critical Care, Surgery and Home Enteral Feeding and is part of the BDA Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Group.

Allie joined CMUK in 2020 as Social Media and Communications Officer, with a passion for promoting collaborative MDT working within nutrition and disseminating evidence-based nutrition information within the social media space. She believes that Medics and AHPs have an important role to play in supporting patients with their nutrition and culinary skills, and that a collaborative approach is key to enhance the care provided to patients. Her role includes coordinating our social media channels and creating evidence-based content and promoting CMUK events.